Another installment of Oli’s round-the-world emails:

Quick note- If you’re ever speeding in New Zealand, the cops fine you based
on which excessive speeding catagory you find yourself in. For example,
speeding upto 120km/h on a highway and that’s the first bracket. Get caught
at 121km/h and they screw you even more…..like $170!! What did I
think….well, it rhymes with “bankers”. Saw him going past me from the
other direction as I was travelling at (what I thought) was a moderate
speed, I then got that sinking feeling as I saw his brake lights flash on in
my rear view mirror, u-turn at the bottom of the road and then stick on his
lights. I did think about finding a side road, but no luck!!

Anyways, as far as distance covered, we picked up the pace again. Burnt
more time then expected on the beautiful east cape of the north island- it’s
great that none of the hop-on, hop-off tour buses don’t visit this part-
they’re missing our big time. Spent a couple of days in Rotorua, the evil
egg-smelling capital of the world. For those that haven’t heard about it,
this place sits on a loada thermal springs, geysers and smelly water pools
that they’ve turned into the biggest tourist attraction on the island. We
checked out the thermal village, it’s geysers and then relaxed in a spa
complex overlooking Rotorua lake , being cooked alive in 43oC water, feeling
completely washed-out. Mental note: be on your toes if you find yourself
with two german girls clubbing, having consumed a bottle of gin between
themselves, the prior warm-up….White water rafting was awesome too- grade
5 river, mainly because of a 7 metre waterfall drop we did successfully-
beautiful gorge/canyon scenery as we negotiated the river- something out of
the movie “Predator”. Schwarznegger aside, we then moved on to the
waterfront town of Tauranga. Not a particulary great city to stay at, but
allowed be to catch “Casino Royale”, which I thought was one of the best
Bond movies I’ve ever seen!! The cafes/ bars on the harbourfront were nice
to spend the remainder of the day and allow me to catch up on writing my
letters!!

The next 3 days, we found ourselves travelling around the beautiful
Coromandel Peninsula- a rugged, hilly, green strip of land, we snorkelled
and sunbathed at the most beautiful beaches I’ve seen since being in NZ.
Cathedral cove was very impressive to see, named because of the huge arch
connecting its two beaches, in a secluded vegetation-infested cove where
there were few people and great sand. Hot water beach was another favourite
of mine- laying in a sand-dug pit on the beach, where thermal water
collected in our pool to make a saline bath. Really weird to be gazing at
the sea, with loads of other people digging their own holes like it was a
gold rush or diggin in for a sea invasion- spades everywhere!! It was also a
strange sensationto feel hot, even painfully boiled when essentially bathing
at a beach- felt like my primary school trip to Slapton sands so many years
ago!! Stingray bay is also worth a mention, being completely desolate when
we were there in the morning, another secluded turqoise coloured bay with
chalky cliffs and surrounding forest. I managed to find a couple of
stingrays too!! Not very big though, probably enough meat for two people….
We completed the rest of the peninsula, stopping at the quaint Coramandel
town and Thames- a place that belongs on a Hollywood western film set (gold
mining/ logging town back in the day).

Managed to find ourselves in Auckland for a night, getting lost as soon as
we peeled off the highway- so strange to find a high-rise city in New
Zealand…to me it felt a bit outta place. Managed to find our hostel and
checked out the small city centre for a day- It’s weird, the city skyline
looks impressive, but once you’re in the centre, the place feels like it’d
shrunk!! We said our goodbyes to the German girls and continued up the
northern arm of the island, stopping at the Bay of Islands in the town of
Paihia. A pretty little town overlooking the bay, we did some fishing off
the pier and caught a ferry across to a sedate town across the bay called
Russell. From here, we also visited the Waitangi treaty grounds, where the
Kiwis signed across NZ to the Brits. Saw the beautiful 27m Rainbow Falls
outside the cafe-culture town of Keri Keri (spelt right!). The plunge pool
was massive, and the surrounding area was fern tree forest, feeling like
Dinosaurs shoulda been drinking here. The town itself was great to grab
some lunch and had a nice relaxed vibe, like Napier.

For the last part of our journey to date, we drove all the way up to Cape
Reinga, where we found a nice looooong unsealed road that was such a
pleasure to drive, along a road with no barriers, skirting over the hilly
peninsula. The lighthouse at the cape was great to see- A dramatic
chalk-white structure sitting on a jut of rock, surrounded by serene waters
that signal the meeting of the Tasman sea and the Pacific ocean just bathing
in the final throws of afternoon sunlight. Very tranquil and well worth the
drive.

Right, that’s the end of another email from dearest me. Thanks again for
the mail I’ve received from various people, means a lot to me!! Take care
of each other and I’ll try my best to steer clear of any more
bacon….speeding could severly damage my budget!!

Bye for now!!!
Oli

Another installment of Oli’s round-the-world emails:

Part nine, signals 9 weeks being away from the lovely country that is
England?

Yep, hi again, giving you some more text to read, should watching paint dry
become way too tedious….The ferry crossing to Wellington was pleasant,
found a zebra-stripped backerpackers hostel in the middle of the city and
stayed for a couple of days to soak up its famous cafe culture. The Te Papa
museum in Wellindton is really worth checking out- 6 floors exhibiting
everything New Zealand, from history to biology, its culture…After two
days in the windy capital, we hired another car and drove north to the
uninspiring town of Palmerson North. Sorry if anyone thinks differently,
but this place wasn’t that great, so we continued our scenic drive through
the foothills to the Hawkes Bay region of the North Island. The area around
Hawkes bay reminded me of the Picton-Nelson/ Marlborough region of the sound
island- very flat and fertile, with lots of farms and vineyards soaking in a
nice warm temperate climate. Spent two nights in Napier, a town to
apparently rival the art-deco crown that Miami has. For me, it’s one of my
favourite places to date, reminding me of a Cuban town (Holguin) I saw
earlier this year- beautiful pastel and chalk white art deco period low-rise
buildings with palm tree-lined avenues and cafes/bars spilling tables and
chairs out on the pavement. This place had a very relaxed feel, with people
reading and drinking in the sunshine, without care for time. On my second
day in Napier, I went for a drive to the neighbouring town of Hastings- not
quite as nice as Napier, but still having lots of character. Went to a
couple of beaches too and just gave me an excuse to find some desolate
roads, with some beautiful scenary to drive through and appreciate the
summer sun.

Next up, we continued up the eastern arm of the north island, detouring
inland to the eerie “Waikaremoana Lake”, a place in the hilly interior
surrounded by primeval forests, flat as a mill pond. It was very peaceful
to be there, but the 80km worth of gravel road required to get there and
back did our car bo favours. Gisborne was our next place to stay for a
couple of nights, where Cptn Cook first set foot on New Zealand. Again, a
very relaxed place where we found more travellers who were working locally
and living in the hostel. A few cafes and a birthday BBQ later, we left,
but filling up our car with two German girls who wanted to join us on our
journey to the east cape. After being stopped by sheep and cow herds, and
driving though a stereotype English countryside, we arrived at (almost) the
most eastern point in New Zealand on a wood-littered beach, and consequently
one of the first places in the world to see the light of a new day. Found a
great secluded hostel 10 metres from the sea, in Maraehako Bay, and did some
cool sea kayaking around the neighbouring bays for a few hours.Still
together, the four of us are now in the seaside town of Whakatane, quite a
busy place with some great coastal scenary to explore.

The last week or so has been quite relaxing for me, as opposed to the
sometimes rapid pace of the south island. It’s been really nice for me as
it’s given me a chance to write some more letters and chill out with a
coffee and attempt some more home cooking, which I love to do for friends
whenever I can. The weather’s been very kind to us and it feels so alien
that xmas is looming on me!! Hopefully you’ll like my relatively sedate
email, and I wish you all the best,

Oli

Another installment of Oli’s round-the-world emails:

The drive down from the Cape was long, driving south and managing to catch
Auckland at rush hour, meaning we spent the whole bloody day driving to
Hamilton. Nothing much happened here, except we witnessed some
bloody-aweful karoke. I’m talking about crusifying classic songs at some
work christmas party, where the landlord had a face contorted with pain, a
memorable expression. Anyways, we headed to village of Waitomo after that,
only on the tourist map because the region is riddled in a vast network of
caves. Signed up for a few hours of ferreting around underground, rapelling
down into the cave opening, scrambling around in the dark, rafting on big
inner tubes down the river and then climbing back out of the cave. The best
part for me was all of us turning off our lanterns and letting our eyes
adjust to the eerie greeny/blue glow of millions of glow worms who’s home we
were in- a huge cave. After a couple of minutes, we had enough light from
these little guys to walk through the cave, watching eels slither down the
river past our feet.

The next day, we drove to the famous Lake Taupo and spent 2 nights there,
soaking in the spas, doing some short walks and basically laying-low, due to
the poor weather. The Tongariro crossing was a complete washout. We were
told ¡§fine weather¡¨, which is latin for a loada crap. We got soaked
within an hour of hiking, passing the blackened rubble-strewn landscape of
Soda Springs, climbing Devil¡¦s Staircase (400 m elevation in 400 m
horizontal distance¡K.that¡¦s right, a friggin¡¦ metre climbed for every
metre walked!!). This steep precarious climb into the mist would¡¦ve been
satisfying if we could see anything¡Kno danger of that happening with mist,
rain and an endless sheet of grey cloud. Maritime climates rock! I assume
that our ascent led us to the South Crater- a huge plateau of rock debris,
its flanks masked by¡Kmist. After that section, we ascended further to a
height of 2000 metres, where you could normally gaze at the impressive
mountains (Tongariro & Ngauruhoe), to the Red Crater. From there we viewed
the Emerald lakes, descending to catch their steamy sulphurous mist and
admire their limpid green colour up close. We pushed on quick to the
Central crater and briefly stopped at a hut before completing the last part
of the hike through scrubland and forest. The whole thing took 5 hours, as
we didn¡¦t stop due to the poor weather!!

While at Taupo, I decided to drive back to Napier by myself, as I wanted to
meet a good friend that I met all the way back in the Abel Tasman national
park, Zeynep. After our brief time in Napier together (which was well worth
the return 300km journey), we drove back to Taupo, met another nice German
girl called Nina and went to Rotorua for a couple of days, as the weather
was still poor. By the 21st, I was supposed to return the rental car back
to Auckland and fly to Australia. I was really torn with the prospect of
leaving NZ, and actually changed my Ozzy flight/ accommodation so that I
could stay for xmas and fly out a week later. Ended up spending a draining
12 hrs returning the rental car and returning to Rotoroa the same day.

As if someone was rewarding me with my choice, I was greeted with sunshine
the following day, so I decided to do a 15,000ft tandem skydive. The four
of us traveling together drove back to Taupo and boarded a tiny pink plane
that rapidly took us to 12,000ft, where the other 3 jumped. When I got to
15,000ft, I shuffled to the aircraft door strapped to my instructor and was
hurled out of a perfectly good plane. Had over a minute of freefall,
absorbing the incredible sight of the NZ landscape, my adrenaline pumping.
The feeling intensified as we dropped into the clouds, as we were then
plummeting at an incredible speed through a shroud where I could no longer
judge distance, but just drop into nothingness. We emerged from the clouds
to once more sight NZ, my ears experiencing the cold air rush, so loud!!
Suddenly, after what felt like 10 seconds of freefall, our ¡¥chute opened,
and the decent went silent. From that point, the jump turned into a serene
relaxed affair, where I just took in the scenery and gradually floated back
down to the airfield. An amazing experience!! Spent the rest of the day
relaxing and had a few drinks in the evening to celebrate. A lucky break
finally!!

That¡¦s another week from Oli, hope you enjoyed reading that? I¡¦m planning
to do some xmas shopping tomorrow, a day before Christmas- it¡¦s never too
late. I still have no festive spirit, so I hope that the prezzie hunt will
give me some¡K.As for you lot, enjoy the festive season and have a great
time with as many people as you can ļ Wish I could see everyone, if only
for a moment!! Take care & merry Christmas from the other side of the world.

Best wishes,
Oli